Legislation to extend Illinois’ planned pilot project to use numerical locking caps for painkiller prescriptions was recently approved unanimously by the Senate Licensed Activities and Pensions Committee. The bill now advances to the full Senate. Senate Bill 2901, sponsored by Senate Majority Caucus Whip Iris Y. Martinez (D-Chicago), would extend the date for the end of the pilot project to Jan. 1, 2018. Last year, the Senate voted 58-0 and the House voted 107-0 to approve legislation, House Bill 3219, authorizing the pilot project. Even though the pilot program passed and was signed into law by the governor, it was not implemented because funding was not available.

The locking caps are similar to gym numerical locks and use a four-digit code to prevent abusers from accessing prescriptions containing hydrocodone, also known as Vicodin or Norco. A report compiled from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) found that deaths from drug poisoning linked to opioid analgesics (such as morphine, oxycodone, methadone and heroin) jumped to 41,502 in 2012 from 16,849 in 1999. Drug overdose death rates in the United States have more than tripled since 1990, according to the CDC. Prescription painkillers cause three out of four prescription drug overdoses. There is also a House version of Martinez’s legislation, House Bill 5949, sponsored by State Rep. Michael Zalewski (D-Riverside), chairman of the House Health Care Licenses Committee.